9-16-2006
Our last afternoon in London was spent at the flea markets outside of Notting Hill looking for historic photographic images for our personal study collections. The market at Portobello was packed with antique and artisan vendors selling everything from old clocks to knock-off handbags: a little something for everyone. Unfortunately the
photographic sales were not as plentiful as most other items, though Gawain did manage to buy an entire photographic album of gelatin silver prints charting one man’s time spent as a military pilot (only 10 pounds!). Apart from some beautiful World War II plane images, it also has promising examples of silver gelatin print deterioration-- the topic of his research project. We saw many beautiful photographic items that were unfortunately a tad beyond our price range such as a stereo daguerreotype, a small photographic album of British Royalty, and some photographs by Bonfils, Fenton, and Reijlander. Asking prices for photographic items were twice or more what we are used to in the United States. We hear there are more bargains to be found in the markets of Paris. We will be sure to report back on this sometime this week.On our stroll back to the hotel from the market, we stumbled quite serendipitously on a glorious street along the west side of Kensington Gardens that contained the residences of many foreign diplomats. Many buildings displayed their country’s flag. There were armed guards everywhere and signs indicating no photography, so we didn’t even try to snap a pic. You’ll you just have to take our word on how lovely this neighborhood was.
After a productive afternoon, we packed our bags and headed to the train station bound for Paris. The Eurostar train runs from London into the country side of England and then underground through the English Channel and then enters France at Calais and onto Paris. We were only a brief subway ride away from our hotel, where, exhausted, we called it a night in preparation for an adventure-filled week of photography and conservation in Paris.
